Fleet Management

Fight For KLLM Not Over

The fight for control of refrigerated carrier KLLM Transport Services is not over yet. Prime Inc. President Robert Low, announced yesterday that he is extending his tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of the common stock in the company.

This comes after last week's announcement that the company has entered into a definitive merger agreement with High Road Acquisition Corp., a company formed by Jack Liles, KLLM's president and MCI WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers. High Road offered to buy all outstanding shares for $8.05 each, a deal worth about $33 million. Liles and Ebbers had withdrawn a previous bid of $8.25 a share after an investor backed out earlier in the week.The deal topped a buyout offer of $7.75 a share by Low's company Low Acquisition. But Low says he is now extending the expiration date of his offer from midnight on Tuesday, May 30, 2000, to midnight on Friday, June 9, 2000. "I was disappointed to learn that the Special Committee of the KLLM Board had accepted a bid of $8.05 per share submitted only 24 hours earlier by a group headed by Jack Liles, thecurrent chief executive officer of KLLM," Low stated in a press release."Based on my review thus far of certain new information provided to me in connection with my bid submitted to the Special Committee, I am confident that I would be in a position to offer a per share price for all of the KLLM shares in excess of the price offered by the Liles/Ebbers group and accepted by the Special Committee. Under these circumstances, I do not see how the recent actions taken by the Special Committee can be in the best interests of the KLLM stockholders."